Social Forestry

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Definition

Initiated by the Government of India in 1981, the term social forestry stands for the management & protection of the forest and the sustainable development of environment and the society along with a balanced approach towards revenue collection and profit generation through forest.

The Project was launched in 1981 in 101 districts of India, under which following steps were adopted:

A tree for every child programme, which was given financial & technical assistance from Sweden & Canada.
Fuel wood plantation programme

The main objectives of this programme:

Improvement of the environment & land rehabilitation.
Protection of agriculture form harmful climatic conditions
To ensure the supply of fuel wood, fodder etc.
Create job opportunity for unorganised / unskilled workers.
Sustainable social development along with providing good standard of living.

Criticism

Though this scheme requires active participation of common men, village, council & local communities. But the area of criticism related to the project has been lack of funds by the government, lack of management of local area by the Gram Panchayat, absence of proper training to execute the programme effectively and adoption of unscientific and older methods.

Importance form examination point of view:

Short Note - Social Forestry
Discuss the main objectives of Social Forestry. Discuss the need for such a project & analyse the are of concern existing in effective implementation of the project.

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